The Brookhaven leader., 1887-09-22

4
men like ourselves, when Iol they showed
their pinions before they left, and we
found out that they were angels unawares.
| Another reward comes In the good
wishes and prayers Of our guests. do
not think ones house ever gets over hav-
| ing had n good man or woman abide
there. George Whitefield used to scratch
/ on the window Of the room where he was
entertained q passage Of Scripture, and In
/ one case, after he left, the whole house
hold was converted by the reading OF that
/ passage on the window.pane. The woman
| Of Shunem furnished a little room over
the walls for Elisha, and all the ages have
heard the glorious consequences. On
| cold stormy winter night, my father en-
tertained Trueman Osborne. the evangel-
| ist, and through all eternity / win thank
God that Trueman Osborne stopped at
our house. How many of our guests have
brought to US coincidence and sympathy
and help! There is legend told Of St
Sebald, that in his Christian rounds he
used to stop for entertainment at the
house Of a poor cartwright. Coming
there one day he found the
cartwright aud his family freezing for the
| lack of any fuel ST. Sebald ordered the
man to go out and break the tcicles f. Nm
the side Of the house and bring them y,
and the icicles were brought into the hou~
and thrown on the hearth, and they began
to blaze Immediately, and the freezing
family gathered around and were warmed
| by them. That was legend; but how
| often have our guests come in to gather
up the cold, freezing sorrows of our life,
! kindling them into illumination and
warmth and good cheer.
He who opens his house to Christian
hospitality turns those who are strangers
! into friends. Years will go by, and there
will be great changes in you, and there
Will be great changes in them.
| Some day you will be sitting in
| loneliness, watching bereavement,
and you will get letter in a strange
handwriting, and you will look at the
| post-ofiice mark, and say: "Why, | don't
know anybody living in that city," and
i you will break the envelope, and there
| you will read the story of thanks for your
Christian generosity long years before,
and how they have heard afar off Of your
trouble. And the letter will be so full of
kindly "reminiscences and Christian con-
| dolence, it will be II plaster large enough
to cover up the deep gashes of your soul.
| When we take people into our houses as
Christian guests, we take them into our
! sympatkes forever. In bort, Holland, a
soldier with a sword at his side stopped at
a house desiring lodging and shelter.
| The woman of the house az first refused
| admttance, saying that the men of
| the house were not at home: hut when he
| showed his credentials, that he had been
| honorably discharged from the army, he
was admitted and tarriod during tue night.
| In the night time there was knocking at
the front door, and two rufflans broke in
| to despoil that household. No sooner had
! they come over the door-sill than the
armed guest, who had primed his piece
and charged it with slugs, met them, and
! telling the woman to stand back, ! am
| happy to say, dropped the two assaulting
desperadoes dead at his feet. Well, now
there are no bandits prowling around to
| destroy our houses; but how often 1t is
that we find those that have been our
guests become cur defenders. We gave
them shelter first, and then afterwards, in
| the great conflict of life, they fought for
our reputation; they fought for our prop
erty; they fought for our soul.
Another reward that comes from
Christian hospitality is in the assurance
that we shall have hospitality shown to
US and to ours. In the upturnings of this
life, who knows in what city or land We
HAY bt bHiO"H- anu NJ" illuIh " o may
need an open door, There NAV come no
such crisis to us, but our children NAV be
thrown into some such strait. He who is
in Christian manner hospitable has a
free pass through all Christendom. 1t may
! be that you will have been dead fifty
wears before any such stress shall come
upon one of your descendants, but do you
not suppose that God can remember fifty
years: and the knuckle of the grandchEd
| will be heard against the door Of some
| stranger, and that door will open,
and it will be talked over in
heaven. and it will be said: That mans
grandfather, fifty years ago, gave shelter
to a stranger, and now a strangers door
is open for grandson"
Among the Greeks, after entertaining
and being entertained, they take piece
of lead and cut it in two, and the host takes
one.half of the piece Of lead and the guest
takes the other half as they part. These
two pieces of lead are handed down from
generation to generation, and from family
to family, ard after awhile, perhaps one
of the families in want or in trouble go
ont with this one piece Of lead and find
the other family with the corresponding
piece of lead, and no sooner is the tally
completed than the old hos
| pltallIS IS aroused ana etti-
nal friendship pledged. So the
memory of Christian hospitality will
go down from generation to generation,
and from family to family, an! the tally
will never be lost, neither in this world
nor the world to come.
Mark this: The day will come when we
will all be turned out of doors, without
any exception, bare footed, Eare- headed,
no water in the canteen, no bread in the
hayersack, and will go in that way into
the future world. And / wonder If
eternal hospitaiities Will open before MS.
and il we will be received into everlasting
| habitatiOns2 Francis Frescobald was Il
rich Italian, and he was very merciful and
very hospitable. One day, an English
man, by the name Of Thomas
Cromwell, appeared at his door asking for
shelter and aims, which Were cheerfully
| rendered. FrescObald afterward lost all
! his property, became very poor, and wan
dered up into England; and one day be
saw procession passing, and 10! 1t was
the Lord Chancellor of England; and 10!
! the Lord Chancellor of England was
! Thomas Cromwell, the very man whom
he had once befrIendad down in Italy.
The Lord Chancellor, at the first glance of
/ Frescobald, recognized him, and dis
mounted from his carriage, threw his
arms around him, and embraced h m, paid
his debts, invited him to his house, and
said: "Here are ten pieces of
you gave me, and here are ten
pieces OF money to provide for the horse
you loaned me, and here are four bags, in
/ Il. 4,